Category: Gratitude

An enjoyable afternoon 

  By

Today, we got together with friends to play D&D. We managed to get through two battles, and my paladin only fell below 0 hp once! The younger kids alternated between playing outside in the sprinkler and being on electronics inside while the adults and the teenager played Let’s Pretend and fought boneshard skeletons, a flying zombie, and some creepy creatures from the Far Realms that confused the paladin enough to take a swing at the wizard. In other words, a good time was had by all.

Today, I am grateful for friends and family and time to enjoy them both. What are you grateful for this Monday?

It’s fixed!

  By

Last year, I dropped my iPad mini on the concrete floor of a praking garage. Yes, the screen cracked. For the record, you can use a cracked screen just fine for the most part.

However, there came a point when pieces actually started falling out, and I was concerned with getting slivers of glass in my fingers. So last week, I took it in to get fixed.

The first place i went, which is pretty close by and focuses on Apple products (Double Click Computers) couldn’t help me, but they suggested a place in downtown Bethlehem called iMobile.

iMobile quoted me 1-3 days to get it done. Today (3 business later), they called me to say it was done.

It looked so nice, I hesitated to get fingerprints on the pretty screen!

So that’s what I’m grateful for this Monday. What are you grateful for this week?

The sweetest kids

  By ,

Yesterday (obviously) was Mothers Day. My daughter gave me a flower seedling, a cute little book of ten reasons she loves me, and a card. We also had “a meeting.” I think she picked up the idea at her daycare, where they had weekly staff meetings, usually outside her classroom door. She shared with me her sticker collection and what each one means, and her list of BFFs on her chalkboard, among other things.

Then we colored, with markers on those posters with black “velvet” lines. She saw a package of them at the store Saturday, and I got it because she loves doing art things. I hadn’t expected to color with her, but it was fun.

And my son? Well, he talked about his band trip and about the orientation at the high school last week and this and that — excited and cheerful and ever so talkative, all the things they say not to expect from teenagers. He’s looking forward to high school, and he’s happy with where he is, mostly. That’s a wonderful gift.

So that’s what I’m grateful for, today and always — kids who want to spend time with me and share the important things in their lives with me.

What are you grateful for this week?

Little by little

  By

So I’m trying this straw bale gardening this year. It’s kind of like using raised beds without having to make them. You have to prep the bales with fertilizer to make them start breaking down, to make them a good substrate for growth. That’s actually been going better than I expected — I can see them browning up nicely in spots, and a couple weeds have started sprouting.

The few seedlings remaining are out in the garage — wilting horribly in the 80+ heat we’re having this week. If I can keep them alive long enough, they’re going  into the bales Friday evening, along with new seeds for the ones that don’t (or haven’t) survived. Should be lots of fun for my daughter and I!

The bales will probably look overplanted by most gardening standards, but I’m a firm belief in square foot gardening. I’m looking forward to the harvest, as well as all the time spent with my daughter along the way.

What’s good in your life this Monday?

Simple pleasures

  By

I took time this morning to soak my feet and read a good book. I’m grateful for the pleasure of the action, and that I have enough flexibility with my time that I can do such a thing.

What are you grateful for this Monday?

Spring is in bloom

  By

I love spring, and April is lovely here in PA. (By the way, that’s how they talk here — they don’t say the name of the state. They say “P-A.” I must be going native.) The pollen utterly kills my allergies, of course, but on a day like this, where the rain has temporarily washed it all from the sky, I can enjoy the flowers. (And be very grateful for the rain!) And while it’s still gray, the forsythia in particular is very striking! Continue reading

What I did for ITTD

  By

ITTD stands for International TableTop Day. Now, I didn’t register our event on that site this year — after all, it was just our regular gaming group — but it’s a good place to get information if you want to know more.

The incredible people at Monte Cook Games, who are releasing Weird Discoveries (a book with ten instant Numenera adventures), decided to give one of those adventures to anyone who registered with them to run a game this past Saturday.

I’ve wanted to play Numenera since backing the Kickstarter, but our group’s been doing D&D (4th edition), so I haven’t had a chance. I mentioned to the group that we could do a one-shot adventure for ITTD, and they thought that sounded like fun — which meant this was my first chance to run Numenera.

So today I am grateful to awesome game designers and the amazing group I game with, who took a new system and ran with it for fun all around. (Note to self: in the future, before sending a caravan through a mysterious portal, be sure to know where the portal goes. The group might decide to follow up on that!)

Maybe when we finish up our current campaign, the group might want to actually do a Numenera campaign. If not, there are more of those instant adventures I can run for variety.

What are you grateful for today?

Daffodils!

  By

So much to be grateful for today. It’s warm at last — today’s about 70. Lovely.

The seeds my daughter and I planted are coming right along. Some of them look like they’re ready to go outside (peas and beans, mostly), but I don’t have a space for them yet.

sprouting seeds

This morning, I took a picture of the budding daffodils on the side of our house. This afternoon, I took more pictures because they actually started opening during the day.

daffodil buds

daffodils opening

blooming daffodils

The croci, of course, are blooming in every color imaginable.

purple croci

white croci

yellow crocus

bed of croci

And even the hellebores are struggling out of the ground (and the impacted leaves from last fall).

hellebores unfurling

So the flowers that bloom in the spring (tra-la) are what I’m grateful for today. What about you?

Author copies!

  By

IMG_2324.JPG

Aren’t they shiny? They showed up the end of last week. Official release day is (I believe) July 14, at which point you, too, can read my story “Blood and Gold,” featuring the dragon Rashall.

Also last week, SpeckLit accepted four more drabbles, which will be published sometime next quarter.

Also also, we have yellow crocus buds! (No pics yet.)

What are you grateful for this week?

The hope of growing things

  By

seed traysBit late in the spring, perhaps, but this weekend my daughter and I started seeds in seed trays — vegetables, flowers, a couple of herbs. Figure we’ll get them transplanted the first or second week of May (assuming they haven’t all died from wilt before that).

She said she wanted a garden of her own this year. I love growing things, even if I haven’t had a lot of success with vegetables here in Pennsylvania, so I’m happy to accommodate her wishes. I even have time to prep space to transplant to.

Not raised beds, not this year. However, I believe I still have time to give hay bale gardening a shot — basically, you prep planting spots on the bales with fertilizer, allowing some time for the hay to break down and make a better planting medium. At the end of the growing season, what remains of the bale is compost, usable to prep beds for winter and next year.

That’s the theory, anyway. We’ll see how it works in practice.

The next step, of course, is to get the hay bales.

So today I’m grateful for time with my daughter, shared interests, and the thought of fresh vegetables and flowers to come. What are you grateful for this week?